RE: techwr-l digest: July 15, 2002

[David Handy <davidh -at- automsoft -dot- com>]

Gilda,
Indeed you're right. If you're referring to the United Kingdom in a sentence
like this one, you need the preceding definite article. I'd say the country
name is treated the same way as the United States or the United Arab
Emirates, local idioms aside. I can't find any documented usage laws on this
either, but I can point you to this page: 
http://search.britannica.com/search?query=United+Kingdom
from Britannica online. Look in the 'Encyclopedia articles' column and
you'll see the following sentences:

*  "Histories of the other three constituent parts of the United Kingdom can
be found in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales."
*  "Trade has long been pivotal to the United Kingdom's economy." 
*  "The United Kingdom has a fiercely independent, developed, and
international trading economy that was at the forefront of the 19th-century
Industrial Revolution."

So you can at least point to Britannica as an authoritative user of the term
in this way. 

NB: If I saw the following sentence:
"We have offices in Canada, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom,
Venezuela, and Yemen."
I would also add "the" before Netherlands and United Kingdom, but I wouldn't
fight over it if my elders and betters wanted to leave it out. 

Also, to state what's probably obvious, you don't need "the" in absolutely
every instance, e.g. this list is fine:

Corporate Offices:
-------------------
Canada
Mexico
Norway
United Kingdom
Venezuela
Yemen



HTH,

dh 
automsoft


-----Original Message-----
Subject: the correct wording for "the" United Kingdom
From: "Gilda Spitz" <gspitz -at- longview -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 16:00:53 -0400
X-Message-Number: 43

<snip>
In a sentence such as "We have an office in the United Kingdom", I'm pretty
sure you need to include the word "the" before "United Kingdom". (Hope
that's correct!)

I've been trying to find a resource that will confirm this...<snip>


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